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Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

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21–30 of 266 posts

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#21

Bummer. I really like(liked?) Rdio. I've been a subscriber for several years -- the UI I find to be pretty good, but their mobile apps are garbage. So, who wants to write up an Rdio -> Spotify migration tool?

Since there's no bulk export or migration tool, I pulled everything out of the .artists_list element from /favorites/albums/ so I can rebuild my collection elsewhere.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#22

Bummer. I really like(liked?) Rdio. I've been a subscriber for several years -- the UI I find to be pretty good, but their mobile apps are garbage. So, who wants to write up an Rdio -> Spotify migration tool?

There already is Spotify -> Rdio tools like http://resp.in/ Now we just need the reverse.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#23
post #8

I've been told by people in the position to know that the 2010-era streaming services (Rdio, Spotify, Mog) were all effectively the same company: owned mostly by the music studios (in exchange for licenses) with a minority stake for each's particular founders/investors. As Dalton Caldwell cautioned in 2011, licensing costs make music startups are nigh impossible [1]. For people who are willing to pay for a music serv…

As an Rdio shareholder I was told that the labels did have equity, but certainly not a majority stake. I'm not sure exactly how much they had.

You'd certainly know better than I would.

It seemed strange to me as well (esp after seeing how much outside funding they had raised), but the people I heard it from seemed both credible and adamant. It's also possible that the cap table has changed since I heard this (years ago) and now.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#24
post #8

I've been told by people in the position to know that the 2010-era streaming services (Rdio, Spotify, Mog) were all effectively the same company: owned mostly by the music studios (in exchange for licenses) with a minority stake for each's particular founders/investors. As Dalton Caldwell cautioned in 2011, licensing costs make music startups are nigh impossible [1]. For people who are willing to pay for a music serv…

I agree with you about Google Music. For those lucky enough to sign up early and get the $7.99 price, it is easily the best pay for streaming service out there.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#25

that is really unfortunate, I much prefer Rdio's web interface to Spotify's and for all the years I've been a subscriber it's been rock solid, on the other hand I do think I am likely not the typical user (100% on desktop, mostly listens to full albums rather than random songs, a lot of classical music, etc.) When Rdio shuts down I am really not sure where I will be able to go for a comparable experience, Spotify for…

Apple has an Apple Music app [1] on the Play Store for Android, and is accessible through iTunes (ugh...) on the desktop on both Windows and Mac. (No Linux support unless you can coax iTunes into running on Wine, and no web UI.)

Apple Music's reasonably viable as long as you're only using it on mobile; its viability on the desktop really depends on your ability to tolerate iTunes. Suffice it to say that I remained a Spotify user after my Apple Music trial was up, and I'm otherwise heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.andr...

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#26

that is really unfortunate, I much prefer Rdio's web interface to Spotify's and for all the years I've been a subscriber it's been rock solid, on the other hand I do think I am likely not the typical user (100% on desktop, mostly listens to full albums rather than random songs, a lot of classical music, etc.) When Rdio shuts down I am really not sure where I will be able to go for a comparable experience, Spotify for…

If you still have an existing CD or MP3 collection, then uploading it to Google Play Music is a great option. From there you can use the ad-supported radio and buy albums/songs, or subscribe and get ad-free radio, ad-free YouTube, and all-access to most of the store catalog.

Play Music's web interface is very good, but I can't say whether you'd like it more or less than Rdio and Spotify.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#27
post #17
post #4

Any detail about what's going to happen to existing user accounts? As an Rdio subscriber, I want to make sure my existing collections and playlists don't just get deleted.

I'm 110% sure subscriber accounts are part of the 'Key Assets' Pandora bought from Rdio.

"...in the call today McAndrews made clear that those numbers [of users] are irrelevant since that service is shutting down, not transferring."

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#28
post #8

I've been told by people in the position to know that the 2010-era streaming services (Rdio, Spotify, Mog) were all effectively the same company: owned mostly by the music studios (in exchange for licenses) with a minority stake for each's particular founders/investors. As Dalton Caldwell cautioned in 2011, licensing costs make music startups are nigh impossible [1]. For people who are willing to pay for a music serv…

It's interesting that the music studios are pushing for consolidation in the streaming audio market. Even if they do own a piece of the companies it seems like that could come back to bite them in the future.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#29

that is really unfortunate, I much prefer Rdio's web interface to Spotify's and for all the years I've been a subscriber it's been rock solid, on the other hand I do think I am likely not the typical user (100% on desktop, mostly listens to full albums rather than random songs, a lot of classical music, etc.) When Rdio shuts down I am really not sure where I will be able to go for a comparable experience, Spotify for…

Apple music is not usable with any device. Just to name a few issues I've personally experienced:

- Not being able to listen to music because itunes said I wasn't signed in. (of course I was and the only way to fix it was to restart my computer.) This error happens a few times per month.

- Songs not playing and getting an alert error with some random code that results in searching countless threads online. This happens multiple times per day.

- There's no way to get to an artist from a song...think about that. You can't click on the artists name or select it from the dropdown menu while a song is playing...So you have to search the song and then select the artists name in the search results.

- Absolutely no concept of syncing. Create a playlist on your computer and it might show up on your phone? Create one on your phone and edit it on your computer, but the changes don't reflect across devices. Everything just goes to shit.

- Extremely slow clunky UI. Click a button or link and wait 1-2 seconds for some random UI thing to pop up so you can do whatever it is you set out to do.

- Click any tab in the top navigation with the window set ot 50%0 of the screen and the UI will flutter quite a bit making you select a tab you didn't want to.

- Click on a playlist that apple made and get an error saying something like "This playlist is currently not available". This happens at least once per week.

...I could go on and on. The ONLY thing Apple music gets right is recommendations. IMO It is by far the worst piece of software Apple has ever release.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#30

that is really unfortunate, I much prefer Rdio's web interface to Spotify's and for all the years I've been a subscriber it's been rock solid, on the other hand I do think I am likely not the typical user (100% on desktop, mostly listens to full albums rather than random songs, a lot of classical music, etc.) When Rdio shuts down I am really not sure where I will be able to go for a comparable experience, Spotify for…

Apple has an Apple Music app [1] on the Play Store for Android, and is accessible through iTunes (ugh...) on the desktop on both Windows and Mac. (No Linux support unless you can coax iTunes into running on Wine, and no web UI.) Apple Music's reasonably viable as long as you're only using it on mobile; its viability on the desktop really depends on your ability to tolerate iTunes. Suffice it to say that I remained a…

Yeah... I have yet to accept the iTunes terms of service in the 2-ish years I've owned my latest macbook, and I don't plan to begin now. :)
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